Heart eyes

I was supposed to be in Australia in June. Corona runined that. Bored and alone I downloaded Tinder as a joke, to have someone to chat to in the evenings, knowing I could use lockdown as an excuse to never meet. I had no intentions of anything.

This conversation started a bit different to others, there was a sort of vunerablitly in his text "first time on here not really sure what I'm doing, how are you" I replied with something witty about just swiping and hoping for the best. I wondered how long it would take before he asked for snapchat "to make things less lonely" or if I was looking for a one time fling like how most of the conversations went. But he never did. He actually asked me about myself, and he seemed to get my humour and sarcasm. The conversation flowed. I was intrigued by his name, it's one of the things that drew me to him as it was unusual and I knew a comic and cartoon with a character of the same name. I asked if he knew about this cartoon and he said that's what his name is from. I was very excited he even knew about this cartoon, not many people do. We proceeded to exchange numbers but I was still apprehensive it would actually go anywhere during lockdown.

We continued to text every evening, I kept thinking we would run out of things to speak about but we never did. I began to get butterflies everytime his name popped up on my screen and began thinking about where it was going and asked if he wanted to phone one night.

We phoned for 3 hours, I couldn't stop smiling, I also chatted away, having my first proper conversation in months. We phoned a couple more times, playing music down the phone and watched Netflix together, hitting play at the same time. Eventually we facetimed, I was so nervous as his name rung on my screen. It was so weird seeing him for the first time but still not in real life. Again, we chatted for hours, I hadn't ever smiled like this. I was quickly catching feelings. He seemed so perfect. 

Fast forward we arranged a socially distanced picnic date in a local park. We both do art so I suggested we could paint. I thought he might think I was being cliche but he was up for anything. We were both awkward, no hug and standing apart felt strained, but soon we settled into it. He wrote me a card with a drawing of me in the style of the comic we both liked. It was the sweetest thing anyone's done for me. I watched him painting and realised I was really catching feelings for him, he was even better in person. He got me flowers too. I hadn't ever got flowers.

Fast forward a couple more dates, more handwritten letters, a drive in cinema watching Grease, lots of walks around the country side, and lock down restrictions easing, we hugged and danced under the stars outside as I said if he wanted to be my boyfriend. I felt like I was in a dream. 

I should be in Australia. He only got tinder because him and a friend thought it would be a laugh after being bored in lockdown. Thanks to lockdown I've found love. We wouldn't have found each other if not. Now we've been dating for a while and I've never been happier. It's weird how life has a way of working.